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On 14 September 2017 the European Court of Justice ruled that disputes over a cabin crew member’s contract of employment fall within the jurisdiction of the courts of the country from which they carry out their duties. This ruling will put an end to the unfair practices of Ryanair who insists that only Irish courts are competent. This is a BIG VICTORY for all aviation workers in Europe.

We learnt this very good news during the ETF ‘Fair Aviation for All’ first seminar in Tallinn and all participants applauded to the ECJ decision.

The full ETF/ITF press release can be found below :

ECJ ruling is ‘defeat for Ryanair and victory for workers’ rights’

14 September 2017

The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) and ETF (European Transport Workers’ Federation) have welcomed a ruling today by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as a major defeat for Ryanair on workers’ rights. The Court established that disputes over a cabin crew member’s contract of employment fall within the jurisdiction of the courts of the country from which they carry out their duties – not those of a country such as Ireland which the airline might choose to suit its own interests.

The ruling in the joined cases of Nogueira et al vs Crewlink (Ryanair’s recruitment agency) and Osacar vs Ryanair, establishes the rights of mobile aviation workers to have their grievances heard under the laws of the country from which they work. It determines that an employee can sue his or her employer at a court which he or she regards as closest to him or her. This is a vital step for those who need to seek redress in matters relating to individual contracts of employment.

The ruling brought together multiple cases of cabin crew members from Belgium, Spain and Portugal, all of whom had had employment problems (such as wrongful dismissal cases) with Ryanair/Crewlink, which had attempted to have them heard in Ireland, irrespective of where the crew members lived and worked.

ITF general secretary Steve Cotton explained: “This ruling is a defeat for Ryanair and a victory for workers’ rights. It upholds the fundamental principle of protecting mobile workers in aviation by ensuring that they can hold their employer to account in the country from which they genuinely discharge their duties – not in a nation which they may never have visited and whose courts are foreign and based hundreds of miles from home and place of work.”

Eduardo Chagas, general secretary of the ETF commented: ““I am confident that this ruling will empower the workers in all airlines that want to circumvent national law and pick the jurisdiction that best serves their interests. The home base from which you work is the obvious criterion when defending the legitimate labour rights of mobile staff inside the EU.

“I would like to pay respect to the workers and their unions who stood up and fought for their rights. This this ruling is an important victory in the fight against social dumping in aviation.

“I would also like to thank the ITF/ETF-affiliated CNE union from Belgium for supporting this ground-breaking court case”

The ruling followed a question asked by the Labour Court of Mons (Belgium) and has today found that under Regulation (EC) 44/2001 a crew member can sue their employer in front of the appropriate labour court. This is a major setback for Ryanair, which has been claiming for years that only Irish courts can hear cases from anyone of any nationality and any home base who works for it, since, among other things, its aircraft are registered in Ireland.

On 13-15 September in Tallinn, Estonia was held the first seminar of “Fair Aviation for All” project. It was attended by activists from all over Europe and was dedicated to the EU and international regulatory framework on social rights and labour standards in aviation. FTTUB sent two representatives to the training – Antonia Panayotova and Elitsa Bikova.

This two-year ETF project with the financial support of the EU is aimed at capacity building and educating workers’ representatives to understand better the current regulatory framework in order to be able to come up with concrete proposals vis-à-vis the EU institutions, the Member States and the other stakeholders. In preparation for the main events of the project, a desk research will be performed by an external consultant on the regulatory framework of EU and international aviation with a special focus on social rights and labour standards, taking into account EU-level legislation, as well as the documents of the International Labour Organisations (ILO) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The main events of the project are three seminars on EU and international regulatory framework on social rights and labour standards in aviation and on its strengths and loopholes. The third seminar of the project will take place in Varna, Bulgaria next June. The project will end in November 2018 with a final conference “Fair Aviation for All”.

FTTUB is represented in the Steering committee of the project by Antonia Panayotova, FTTUB International Relations expert and ETF Civil Aviation Section Vice-president.

After the Regional youth conference held on 9 August 2017 in Sofia, FTTUB organized a five-day program for exchanging trade union practices, planning future joint activities with European and international transport federations, and preparing the initiatives of FTTUB Youth Committee. Work visits were organized at Varna-East Port, Varna Public Transport and Varna Airport; as well as a working meeting in the village of Kyulevcha between representatives of the youth committees of FTTUB, ETF and ITF. Прочети още →

Young delegates learned about good practices in the implementation of social policies in a real environment
An international delegation of young transport workers, headed by FTTUB president Ekaterina Yordanova, introduced the working conditions and good practices in the social dialogue at Sofia’s Metropolitan. The visit to the Dispatching Centre of Metropolitan EAD was one more even in the program organized by FTTUB and its youth committee for the International Youth Day -12 August. Young transport workers, activists of the transport unions from Bulgaria, the Balkans and Europe, as well as members of the International Transport Federation (ITF) Youth Committee, took part in the visit.Прочети още →

A new bell started ringing at the International Children’s Park in Sofia, as a symbol of peace and unity between cultures. The event was an initiative of FTTUB’s Youth committee and their peers from Australia. The inauguration of the new bell took place on 10 August 2017 at the ‘Flag of Peace’ monument within the park, and gathered hundreds of young FTTUB members, citizens, municipal councilors, mayors, MPs, employers’ representatives and leaders from the FTTUB organizations. Прочети още →

Participants in a Regional Youth Conference united around the idea that there is a need to strengthen the role of ITF in the Balkan region. The conference took place on 9 August 2017 in Sofia. It was organized by the Federation of Transport Trade Unions in Bulgaria (FTTUB) and its Youth Committee, on the occasion of the International Youth Day – 12 August. It was attended by young transport workers, activists of the transport unions from Bulgaria, the Balkans and Europe. Among the participants were members of the International Transport Federation (ITF) Youth Committee from Poland, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Barbados and Argentina.

The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and the European Cockpit Association (ECA)met with the Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc and the Employment Commissioner MarianneThyssen for talks on the many and diverse social challenges facing the hundreds of thousands ofaviation professionals they represent. Following those discussions, ETF and ECA warmly welcomethe joint commitment made by the Commissioners to deliver a social package for aviation in 2018and to bring the Juncker Commission’s social pillar to life in the aviation sector.
Dirk Polloczek, ECA President, said: “For too long, aviation and its highly mobile workers have beentreated differently to other workers, with aviation’s often separate regime used to enable bogus self-employment, artificial temporary agency worker status or even ‘pay-to-fly’, where the pilot ends uppaying more to fly the aircraft than the passengers do for a seat. ”
Oliver Richardson, ETF Civil Aviation Section President, added: “We now see the EU wet-leasing rulesbeing used to break a lawful industrial action while putting safety and security at stake. The EU muststop practices that favour freedom of provision of services over workers’ rights. We need a cleardefinition of principal place of business in order to avoid letterbox companies as well as aconsolidated definition of home base ensuring proper application of labour law. At the same time, arevision of the Single Permit Directive is needed to extend its application to mobile workers inaviation and prevent social dumping in case third-country crewmembers work on board of EUregistered airplanes”.Against this background, ETF and ECA stand ready to assist Commissioners Thyssen and Bulc in anypossible way to help build aviation’s social pillar. Both organisations strongly hope that thecommitment of the Commissioners to deliver a social package for aviation will materialize in theform of strong and binding rules protecting European aviation professionals. This will contribute tothe overall aim to ensure level playing field in European aviation.

This week, the ETF headquarters hosted a marathon of important aviation meetings that set the agenda for the upcoming period. On Monday, the Steering Committee met to prepare the work of the Section. On Tuesday, the EASA Strategic Group discussed the changes of the legislative framework of the Agency, the internal structure as well as current rulemaking tasks.

This was followed by the meetings of the three Committees (Air Traffic Management, Cabin Crew incl. Pilot Working Group and Ground Staff) dealing with the specific issues for the individual groups. And on Wednesday, the whole Civil Aviation Section got together to deal with a heavy agenda relating to the defence of aviation workers’ rights. Among other things, it included a new and strong campaign on Ryanair that will be implemented in close cooperation with ITFaviation.

Finally, the ETF delegation is attending today (Thursday, 22 June) the Plenary meeting of the Civil Aviation Sectoral Social Dialogue.

Among the topics discussed, we have the changes on the employers’ side representation, the EASA Basic Regulation, Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 on air services or the consultation of the Civil Aviation Social Dialogue Committee.

Brussels, 8 June 2017ETF strongly opposes recommendations in Connected Aviation Packageattacking Air Traffic Controllers’ fundamental rightsAs part of its package entitled ‘Open and connected Europe’, the European Commissionannounced today its recommendations on the so-called service continuity, including measuresaffecting the right to strike. The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) stronglydeplores this attempt to limit indirectly this fundamental right guaranteed by the EU Charter ofFundamental Rights by proposing measures such as individual notification, protection ofoverflights and air traffic peak periods.
The proposed measures significantly encroach the national sovereignty of Member States and contradict the Article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which clearly states that the right to strike is excluded from EU competencies. This article must be understood as a whole, including the way this right is being organised at national level.

Charles-André Quesnel, Chair of the ETF Air Traffic Management Committee, commented: “The aimof the proposed notification at individual level is to attack the collective power of trade unions and wecannot tolerate this. The proposed measures are in breach of EU Treaties and we reserve the right tochallenge them at the European Court of Justice.”

In an earlier study based on official EU data and entitled ‘Efficiency, capacity and growth in European aviation’, the ETF together with ATCEUC have demonstrated that while blaming the air traffic controllers, the airlines themselves are responsible for over 50 percent of flight delays in Europe. Furthermore, the study shows that guaranteeing minimum services, which are in place in several EU Member States, are an ineffective measure.
The ETF is also reserved on the proposal to guarantee 100 percent of overflights in countries affected by industrial action and to use air traffic controllers from other countries as strike-breakers. Apart from the fact that this would circumvent the right to strike, it may also have serious safety consequences due to the lack of sector-specific training for these “universal” controllers.François Ballestero, ETF Political Secretary for Civil Aviation, added: “It is regrettable that theCommission is copy-pasting measures proposed by the lobby organisation of the European airlines.Under the populistic pretext of passenger protection they once again give preference to profit beforepeople. Instead of attacking fundamental rights we urge the Commission to propose recommendationsto the airlines to create quality jobs instead of installing social dumping all over Europe.”